Black helicopter

Black helicopter
Interest of	• Jim Keith • Harry Martin
Black helicopters that have been spotted in different circumstances in the skies above the US, but also the UK.

Black helicopters is a term which became popular in the United States militia movement and associated political groups in the 1990s as a symbol and warning sign of an alleged conspiratorial military takeover of the United States. Sometimes these helicopters have been described as "silent running" and sightings have been also been connected to instances of cattle mutilations and the appearance of UFOs. At some point a division of an American militia connected to Calvin Greenup wanted to shoot down an National Guard helicopter gunship (an AH-64 Apache).

Reporting

Jim Keith wrote articles and two books on the subject: Black Helicopters Over America: Strikeforce for the New World Order (1995), and Black Helicopters II: The End Game Strategy (1998).

Harry V. Martin, who wrote articles about sightings for the Napa Sentinel in the 90s connected some of the air traffic to construction of INTELSAT installations and wrote that these helicopters are in part operated by Wackenhut. At one point he also wrote or claimed that black helicopters have been spotted "coming out of caves on Oakville Grade".

Popularization

Helen Chenoweth-Hage, as U.S. Representative for Idaho, was giving nationwide publicity to the sightings of black helicopters in her district.

A photo of a helicopter that is flying over private property in the US (possibly 1990s).

Mrs. Chenoweth has repeatedly insisted, for example, that Federal Fish and Wildlife agents are using helicopters to work in Idaho, a mountain state with millions of acres of public land. In paramilitary and survivalist circles, helicopters have particular resonance; they are viewed as stealth agents of a global martial force.

But the wildlife agency says it has no helicopters in the gem state, or anywhere else in the West -- and has asked Mrs. Chenoweth to prove her assertion.

"I have never seen them," Mrs. Chenoweth said. "But enough people in my district have become concerned that I can't just ignore it. We do have some proof." (NYT, January 15, 1996)

Mark Koernke and Linda Thompson also have been observed to have played primary roles in the popularization. Thompson made a film in 1994, America Under Siege, in which she accused the government of using black helicopters against patriots, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of establishing concentration camps which were built to prevent people in opposition from interfering with plans to establish a "New World Order".

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